Adelaide Comets v Croydon Kings 
South Australia PlayStation4 National Premier League Round 5 

When: Monday March 9th. Kick-Off 3:00pm 
Where: Santos Stadium, Railway Terrace, MILE END 

Teams: 

Adelaide Comets: 18 T. Balomenos, 13 M. Bouzalas, 19 V. Carapanayiotis, 9 P. Deruvo, 29 T. Desclaux, 32 A. Garuccio, 2 Z. Hristodoulopoulos, 7 J. Karatzas, 8 D. Makridis, 5 K. Nash1, D. Newall, 66 P. Sourjani, 4 M. Tesema, 15 S. Tesfagabr, 17 Z. Waters, 23 D. Zerillo 

Croydon Kings: N. Adams, M. Alaboody, I. Ali, 17 A. Boccaccio, 18 J. Brazzale, 4 M. Doyle, 6 N. Farrell, 12 D. Gazettas, 20 S. Georgiadis, 13 M. Kamara, 5 L. Klimek, 19 L. May, 7 S. Mcgreevy, 16 P. Mercurio, 1 N. Munro, 2 J. Panagaris, 10 C. Pepe, 14 S. Pepper, 15 J. Punturieri, 11 F. Violi, 8 R. Visconte, 9 A. Wiens, RGK C. Zacharopoulos 

Form: 

Adelaide Comets: L W W  
 
Round 2: MetroStars 1 Adelaide Comets 0, TK Shutter Reserve 
Round 3: Port Adelaide Pirates 1 Adelaide Comets 2, Pirate Park 
Round 4: Modbury Jets 1 Adelaide Comets 5, Jet Park 

Croydon Kings: W D D 

Round 2: Port Adelaide Pirates 2 Croydon Kings 4, Pirate Park 
Round 3: Croydon Kings 1 Modbury Jets 1, Polonia Reserve 
Round 4: Croydon Kings 1 Adelaide Blue Eagles 1, Polonia Reserve 

Preview: 

Adelaide Comets welcome defending Champions Croydon Kings to Santos Stadium in round five of the South Australian Playstation4 National Premier League on Monday afternoon. 

Croydon missed their chance to reach the summit of the PlayStation4 National Premier League after a one all draw with current table toppers Adelaide Blue Eagles, and will look to further make ground on the leaders with a win in round five. 

Standing in the way, however, is an Adelaide Comets side coming off the back of a convincing 5-1 away win to strugglers Modbury. 

Comets sit two points behind Croydon in sixth position, with a win seeing them jump up to third if other results go in their favour.  

As a result, Croydon playmaker Rocky Visconte pencilled in this weekend as an important fixture for both sides. 

“This weekend is big for all the clubs with two games in a short space of time,” he said. 

“For us we have Blue Eagles and Comets, which are important because if you win, you pretty much jump each other. 

“It’s a very important game, and it’s going to be a tough one as well.” 

With such a hectic schedule in the week leading up to this weekend’s double header, Comets have had a difficult time with their preparation. Coach Jim Karatzas said that preparing for two teams with vastly different styles has been a challenge for his team. 

“We have been preparing for two games this week, one with Modbury and the other with Croydon,” he said. 

“Both are very different games with different styles of play, so it’s been quite tricky to juggle both.” 

That sentiment was echoed by Visconte who admitted that Croydon were primarily focused on their top of the table clash with Blue Eagles. 

“We’ve been preparing as usual, training sessions have been a bit shorter knowing that we have two games in a short space of time. 

“We keep it one game at a time, we have been worrying about (Blue Eagles) first and Comets second. 

“We haven’t worked on Comets yet, we will probably be called in on Sunday to discuss our game plan.” 

For Croydon to bag an important win away from home, Visconte believes that sticking to the style they know works will be vital. 

“We need to play the way we try to play week in, week out. 

“When we go forward we look dangerous but it’s our defensive minded game plan when we don’t have the ball that wins us the games. 

He added, “If we put every club under pressure when they have the ball they’re going to cough it up, and we know going forward we can put the goals away.   

To walk away with the three points on Monday, Karatzas game plan is simple. Be better than Croydon. 

 “We have to be better than Croydon at the basics, and win our one on one battles. 

“We’ll try and stop their influential players and attack as much as we can, and without giving too much away, try and win the game.”  

Article by Brendan Simpkins